Cryptographic communication protocols are used to establish a secure communication session between computing devices over an untrusted network or communication link. One commonly used cryptographic communication protocol is the Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) protocol. The SSL protocol, and the related Transport Layer Security (TLS) protocol, is used for many different types of secure communication sessions including, for example, secure web-browsing, ecommerce, secure upgrades, and other secure communication sessions between two computing devices on an untrusted network such as the Internet. Other communication protocols may utilize the SSL/TLS protocol to provide the underlying security. For example, the Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure (HTTPS) uses SSL/TLS for encryption of messages between devices. Typically, the cryptographic security offered by the SSL/TLS protocols is done so in-band and performed at the software application level.
Some computing and electronic devices utilize system-on-a-chip (SOC) designs due to their relatively small footprint. SOC devices are integrated circuits that incorporate various components, in addition to the processing core, of electronic systems on a single die. For example, an SOC may include a processor core, memory controller, video components, audio components, and/or communication components on a single chip.